“Then he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.'”

Occasionally you will read a verse in the Bible that just hits you like a ton of bricks! This is one such verse for me. Here’s why …

The moment described occurs right after Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt. They have seen water delivered from a rock, and have eaten manna from heaven. They have defeated the forces of Amalek, and received the Ten Commandments directly from God. They were on the proverbial “spiritual mountaintop”.

If you know your Old Testament history, you know it didn’t stay that way. We’re only eight chapters away from these same people forsaking God to worship a golden calf they’ve just made for themselves. Time and time again, they will wander from God’s way and take up the worship practices of the people around them. Fast-forward to 2 Kings 17, where the Samaritans have been captured and taken to Assyria. “And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel”.

As we read the story of Israel, we’re tempted to wonder “Why can’t these people learn? Why are they so inconsistent?”

What brings me to a full stop is the thought that SO MANY TIMES I have said to myself, or to someone close to me, “All that the Lord has spoken I will do. I will be obedient.” Then, the next day or next week, I’m doing my own thing again and ignoring or compromising God’s standards. The truth is, Israel has nothing on me in terms of inconsistency! I have to ask myself “Why can’t I learn? Why am I so inconsistent?”

The truth is that I NEED to spend time in God’s Word every day, and to spend it in meaningful study, meditation and prayer, NOT just in a quick read-over. In Matthew 22, Jesus told the scribes “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures.” I am engaged in daily battle, and Satan is the enemy. The Word of God is my weapon and my armor in this battle. Why would I leave it gathering dust on the bookshelf?

2 Kings 22 tells the story of King Josiah, who ordered the repair of the temple in Jerusalem. In the course of that repair, Hilkiah the high priest said “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” It’s sad to think that God’s law was LOST within the very temple where His people were to have worshiped him. Would it be any less sad if God’s law were to be lost today within our own homes?

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

I encountered this verse in book 2, lesson 8 of Lonnie Berger’s excellent “Every Man a Warrior” study guides. I was somewhat surprised this was not one of his memory verses, but I made a card for it and added it to the memory verse pack.

Many (most?) of the proverbs make a point by presenting a contrast: not this, but that. Here, the author (most likely Solomon) contrasts concealment with confession. There are two contrasting conditions here, and two contrasting promised outcomes.

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper.” That’s very clear, needing no illumination or explanation. The author doesn’t say what the failure to prosper is about. When we think of propering, we often think of financial prosperity, but there’s much more to it than that. It may be that, concealing my transgressions, my plans and aspirations won’t prosper. It’s certainly true that my spiritual life won’t prosper. The author might have meant that my relationships won’t prosper. Very likely, he meant all of these possibilities, and more. Whatever I want to obtain or achieve, it won’t help to conceal my transgressions.

Then there’s the contrasting promise; confession and repentence bring a merciful response. When I have transgressed in any way, what I need most is mercy. I need to restore broken relationships, with God, with family, with friends, with whomever I have harmed by my transgression. Nothing else in life will go quite right until I restore those relationships, and such a restoration cannot come about without confession and repentence.

James 5:16 says “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed”. Here is a similar promise. Along with mercy comes healing. Healing of relationships, healing of our walk with God and our ability to pray. This verse also speaks to the one to whom confession is made. Our proper response to someone confessing to us is to listen with mercy and compassion, and to pray for them.

King David told of his experience in Psalm 32:3-5. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away.” David’s secret sin, which created separation from God, weighed heavey upon him. We can identify. When we carry such a secret, our spirits are burdened and heavy, and we feel our sprirtual and emotional sickness in our bodies.

“Day and night your hand was heavy upon me” he continues. David knew the source of his distress; God kept it on his mind continuously. This is the work of God’s Holy Spirit, making us aware of our sin, sorrowful for our sin, and longing to return to God for cleansing.

A couple of verses later, David finally resolves his dilemma. Having carried the burden of sin and shame for too long and having become weary under its weight, David says “I acknowledged my sin to you” and “you forgave the iniquity of my sin”.

So how do we apply these verses to ourselves? Here are the questions I’m asking of myself; maybe you want to ask these also. What do I need to confess today? Whom have I hurt with my sin? What relationships need restoration? Will I confess as I need to, and seek God’s mercy?

“Joseph answered Pharaoh, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.'”

Finally! Joseph is getting a break! After languishing in prison for two years, the cup-bearer was finally reminded that Joseph had interpreted his dream, and perhaps he could do the same for the cup-bearer’s boss, the Pharaoh of Egypt.

I see three examples in this short verse; three examples which we should understand and follow.

The first is in recognizing that Joseph is a prisoner, dragged from prison to stand before the Pharaoh, a monarch with the power of life or death over his prisoners. Joseph saw, however, that God was giving him an opportunity, and he seized it quickly. He didn’t stand about bashfully gazing at his feet. He spoke up quickly and answered the king.

This makes me wonder how many opportunities God places before me which I totally let slide by. I’m aware of some of them; sometimes before the fact and sometimes after. I’m sure there are many more of which I’m not aware. Even as I’m writing this, I’m realizing I missed an opportunity yesterday to share a well-known scripture with someone who needed that exact bit of inspiration.

The second example is revealed as Joseph said “It is not in me”. Joseph refused to take credit for what God was doing for him. He certainly could have responded “Sure, I can interpret that dream for you!” I believe even in that case, God would have given him the interpretation. I can’t give you a scripture to back that up, but I believe it because, had I been in God’s place at that moment, I would not have helped Joseph! I often find that whatever is my natural first instinct, God would do the opposite.

Joseph, however, resisted the temptation to take the credit for himself. How can I follow that example? By taking every opportunity to point out God’s blessings; to give Him the credit for everything I do for others in His name. It is God who gave me life and has sustained me to this day, therefore anything I have done is to His credit, not mine.

Joseph reveals his third example when he continues “God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Joseph is confident in his God, assured that God will provide for him, and enable him to be a blessing to someone else. Joseph is fulfilling his primary mission, which is also ours: to bring a knowledge of God and His loving goodness to those who don’t know Him.

Do I make use of the opportunities God provides to speak up for Him? Do I humbly acknowledge God as the source of all my blessings? Do I confidently tell others of the blessings God has available for them? Will I follow the example of Joseph?

“But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love.”

Quite a lot has transpired in the last four chapters! Isaac and Rachel have died and been buried. We’ve had an update on the family growth of Esau. Joseph has gotten himself crossways with his brothers, who have shown their own rebellious nature by selling Joseph into slavery. This, I might add, was their better alternative to their original plan to kill him.

Chapter 37 ended with Jacob’s sons gathered around him, holding a bloody robe, and with Jacob weeping bitterly as he mourned the [seeming] loss of his beloved son, whom he believed had been savaged by wild animals. The scene abruptly changes to a caravan of Midianites, by the side of the road in Egypt, selling Joseph to Potiphar.

Chapter 39 opens with a more upbeat scene, Joseph working in Potiphar’s household, finding much success because “the Lord caused all that he did to suceed”. However, as time goes on, Potiphar’s wife enters the story and Joseph’s path takes a sharp turn. Potiphar’s wife was apparently unaccustomed to being told “No”, unaccustomed to being denied anything she wanted. When Joseph denied her his affections, choosing to follow God’s will instead, she turned against him. It didn’t take long at all for Joseph to find himself in prison, serving the prison guard instead of Potiphar.

Our verse of the day comes at this critial point, assuring us that God had not abandoned Joseph; that God had remained with Joseph even in the darkness of prison. God’s love for Joseph was “steadfast”. I understand that word, but had to look it up to explain it. The dictionary defines it as “firm in purpose, resolution, faith” or “unwavering”. It’s a love that Joseph could always count on.

As we read on through the rest of the book, we will see that God had big plans for Joseph. That would be hard to see, or to believe, in the darkness of an Egyptian prison. We know, however, that God’s hand was upon him. “The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed.”

There’s one other point to be made here, but we will need to jump ahead a bit to the end of chapter 40. You’ll remember the story in that chapter, where Joseph interpreted the dreams of two prisoners, including Pharoh’s cupbearer, who had a very positive outcome. “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.”

Throughout history, the fundamental nature of people does not change. The cupbearer forgot the man who helped him in prison, and often today we’ll have people who make us promises and then forget them. God never forgets. The lesson here is that God is always faithful, and we can place our trust in Him. Placing our trust in fallen, sinful people usually ends in disappointment. Placing our trust in God never does.

“Then Judah identified them [his property] and said ‘She [Tamar] is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah’.”

As Genesis flows through the family story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons, this chapter seems a bit out of place to the reader. It’s as if we’ve been rolling down the road through the ups and downs of this family, and then for one chapter have pulled off to the side of the road. This stopover, however, is not to admire any scene of beauty! It is, however, a rather shabby episode in the life of Judah, Jacob’s fourth son by Leah.

Tamar is a Canaanite, whom Judah had chosen for a wife for his son Er. Judah was himself married to a Canaanite woman whose name was not recorded. So far as I know, we have no record of a direct command to Abraham and his descendants not to intermarry with the Canaanites, but we have Abraham’s example in Genesis 24, where he requires an oath of his chief servant: “Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son [Isaac] from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

In the next generation, Isaac “called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, ‘You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.'”

So we see that both Isaac and Jacob married within their own clan, and were specifically forbidden by their fathers from marrying Canaanite women. The reason is not given, but as this family had received great promises from God, including that through their descendants all nations would be blessed, it’s reasonable to believe that they were trying to maintain their purity before their God, and avoiding the ungodly practices of the Canaanite people among whom they lived.

Now in the third and fourth generations, we see both Judah and his son Er taking Canaanite women for their wives. Er was apparently caught up completely in the ungodly practices of the Canaanites, so much so that “the Lord put him to death” (38:7). Tamar was given in marriage to his brother Onan, but because of Onan’s rebellion against God, “He [God] put him [Onan] to death also.”

Shelah was too young at this point to marry Tamar, so she remained an unmarried widow in her father-in-law’s house. Over time, however, Shelah grew up and Judah failed to marry him to Tamar as he was obligated to do. Tamar grew discouraged, and tricked Judah into impregnating her as she posed as a cult prostitute.

Then we come to verse 26, in which Judah is confronted with the proof that he is the man responsible for his daughter-in-law’s illicit pregnancy. By this time, if we have followed the story carefully, we should be shocked to our toes by the statement “She is more righteous than I”!

Let’s think about this. “She” is Tamar, a Canaanite, whom the descendants of Abraham and Isaac weren’t supposed to marry. She is the one who disguised herself as a prostitute, and positioned herself to be discovered by Judah on his out-of-town business trip. Yet with all of this, Judah admits that she is the more righteous of the two!

It seems to me there wasn’t much righteousness to go around at this point. He’s the one who purchased the services of a prostitute. He’s the one who discouraged his daughter-in-law Tamar by refusing her marriage to his youngest son Shelah. He’s the one who was about to have her executed when her pregnancy was discovered.

And yet, in Judah’s response, we do find an example to follow. Confronted with the evidence of his sin, Judah doesn’t lie, doesn’t try to deceive his way out of responsibility. He admits his sin, and recognizes how his own disobedience has contributed to her sin as well.

Most of us will have a point in our lives when we are confronted with our sin, when it seems that life comes crashing in all around us. How will we respond? Will we lie? Will we try to deceive with half-truths, and truths remaining hidden? Or will we step up like Judah did and confess our sin, taking responsibility for our actions and for the ways in which we may have led others astray also?

And now we can come back around to ask why this chapter, seemingly an off-ramp from the main story, was included here. In verses 29 and 30 of this chapter, we see that Tamar gave birth to twins, whom they named Perez and Zerah. Flip over to Matthew 1:3, and see who shows up in the genealogy of Jesus: “and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar”!

Yes, we’ve all sinned, we’ve all done some really dumb things. But that doesn’t mean God can’t use us to work out His plan! Our great God can use even the most broken, sinful people who find it in their heart to give themselves to His will and His service.

“So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.'”

This verse comes on the heels of chapter 34, the story of the defilement of Jacob’s daughter Dinah, and the destruction of the Shechemites by his sons. Jacob’s reputation has been ruined in the region where he has settled, and his urgent need is to leave the area quickly!

It is important to note that Jacob has been absent from the land which God has promised to him and to his descendants for many years. He is aware of God’s promise, but has chosen to go his own way and live where he chooses. In that way Jacob isn’t much different from the rest of us. How many ways do we choose to go our own way, in our work, in our leisure, in our choice of friends and activities, in our choice of church membership and involvement, and ignore God’s call to step up to a higher standard?

The command in this verse is from Jacob to his household: “Put away the foreign gods”. Although this is not technically a direct command to you and I, we would do well to take it as such. I don’t know whether these gods were part of the wealth of the Shechemites recently captured (34:29), or if they had gradually adopted the worship practices of the people among whom they had been living for years. Either way, Jacob says to his family that it’s time to mend their ways, to return to the God who had been with them and sustained them for generations.

What are the “foreign gods” in your life, and in mine? Perhaps the television programming and movies we choose to watch. Perhaps the people with whom we choose to associate socially, and the social activities in which we choose to engage. Perhaps it is the internet content we choose to view, or how we choose to spend our time or our treasure. Whatever values and practices we’ve absorbed from the godless world surrounding us, Jacob calls to us from ancient history, through the pages of the Bible, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves”.

Will you obey his command, clean up your life, and re-dedicate yourself to obey and serve the God who loves you and saves you? Will I?

“And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.”

To set the scene here, Jacob is returning to the homeland of his father Isaac, after twenty years in Paddan-aram with Laban, having married two daughters of Laban and worked for him all that time. At the end of Genesis chapter 27, Jacob’s brother Esau was plotting to murder him. This was Jacob’s primary motivation in leaving home at that time, and the reason he’s nervous about returning to the area now. Has Esau forgotten his plan to murder his brother? Has he forgiven Jacob for deceiving him twice and taking much of what should have been inherited by Esau?

In this prayer, Jacob acknowledges that he is returning at God’s instruction. It is to his credit that, fearing his brother, he still returns in obedience to God. Jacob provides the first of three examples we need to observe and follow. As Jacob did, will I follow God’s instruction, even when I’m fearful to do so? Will I have faith that God will enable that which He has instructed?

Jacob’s second example is his recognition of God’s blessings in his life: “for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.” Note that Jacob is very specific in his prayer regarding his blessings. He’s not just thankful for generic blessings; he specifically names and identifies his blessings.

How about me? Am I aware of the specific ways in which God has blessed me? Can I name specific blessings which are uniquely mine? How can I be truly thankful to God unless I know what I’m thanking him for?

Jacob’s final example in these two verses is found in his statement “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love.” Jacob knows who he is in relation to God. Jacob knows that God owes him nothing; that all God’s blessings proceed from God’s grace and goodness, not from obligation. Jacob realizes that he [Jacob] deserves nothing from God’s hand. This realization adds dimension to his gratitude.

As I consider God’s gracious gifts to me, do I keep in mind my relationship to him? Do I remember that He is the creator and I am the created? That I have earned absolutely nothing; it’s all grace and goodness on God’s part.

As we read through the whole story of Abraham and his descendants, we see that God has chosen us use flawed, sinful people for His divine purposes. Prior to these verses, Jacob has provided us with some significant negative examples to avoid. Let’s not miss the good examples to follow, as we’ve seen here.

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

Many Christians are, I believe, losing a war they don’t even realize they are fighting! This verse from 1 Peter warns us that we are engaged in a war for our souls! Peter’s entreaty to the Asian churches, and through them to us, is to abstain from fraternizing with the enemy!

Which of us, if we found ourselves face-to-face with a poisonous snake, would try to shake hands with it? Perhaps have lunch or afternoon coffee with it? Even as you read this, you know it’s silly … the thing to do when faced with a such mortal danger is to move away, to protect ourselves.

Why don’t we do the same with the “passions of the flesh”?

The passions of the flesh are within us from birth as a part of our fundamental nature. The prophet Jeremiah wrote that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (17:9). In the book of Romans, Paul reminds us that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (3:10-11) It is simply not within our nature to seek God, nor to understand the things of God. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Paul wrote to the Colossian church “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Where Peter has assumed that his readers understood what were the “passions of the flesh”, Paul makes no such assumption. The passions of the flesh are, in summary, selfishness. We are self-centered, self-pleasing, and appointing self to authorities which can belong only to God. We assume that we know better than God what is right for us, what we need, and what we have a right to have.

Peter and Paul’s words are echoed in James 4:1-3. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

James’ words add insight into the relationship between our passions and our prayers. When we are caught up in self, in our own desires, we pray and “ask wrongly”, and do not receive. Yet another way in which the passions of the flesh wage war upon our souls is to make our prayers ineffective, because these passions cause us to pray selfishly.

So, how do I respond to Peter, Paul and James? How do I engage in this war and overcome the enemy? James tells us “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But we cannot do this on our own!! James precedes this statement by telling us how to resist: “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” Submit to God, and abide in His Word, daily. Will you? Will I?

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. … So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, … Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”

I love the 12th chapter of Genesis because it begins the story of Abraham, but also because it is rich in examples for me (and all of us) to follow. If we had to choose just two characters in the Old Testament who walked with God and provided examples of great faith, we must choose Abraham and David.

The first example is in verses 1 and 4, where God said “Go” and “Abram went”. If Abram put up any arguments or objections, it’s not recorded, and as Abram’s arguments are recorded in chapter 18, I have to assume in chapter 12 that he offered no objection; he simply obeyed.

I don’t know exactly how God spoke to Abram here, whether in a dream or an appearance in corporeal form, or simply whispered in his ear. I do know, however, that God’s Holy Spirit speaks into my mind, and I would assume into yours also. There are many occasions in which God says “Go” in our own lives. Rarely is it a change of homeland as it was for Abram, but there are clear motivating commands to each of us in various forms: go build a wheelchair ramp, go visit a sick brother, go teach a younger brother, go help a church staff member, go serve a relative, go show kindness to a neighbor.

Will I, and will you, show honor, respect and love for God by going and doing as He inspires and directs you to do? Will I, and will you, open the storehouse of resources with which God has blessed us, to be God’s blessing to others in need.

There’s another example I want to highlight in verse 7 of the same chapter. Here, God makes a promise to Abram, a blessing yet to be fulfilled. Abram’s response is to worship God.

God has made numerous promises to us. Consider 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” How about James 4:7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Jesus promised in Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

If you stop to think about it, God’s promises to us are even greater than the promises He made to Abraham! God promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, and to give his descendants a tract of land. God promises us salvation from our sins, eternity with Him in heaven, and His constant comforting and guiding presence with us here and now. He tells us He has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be redeemed, to be with Him forever.

What is your response to God’s promises? What is mine? Will we respond with worship, honor and praise? Will we respond with a generous, obedient spirit? Will we respond by honoring Jesus as Lord of our lives, as well as trusting Him as Savior of our souls?

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

I chose this verse because it’s part of our ALG lesson for next week, and because it’s best understood within the context of other scriptures as described below.

Peter’s instruction here is to put aside or throw off those attitudes and actions which disrupt and destroy community. Just a few verses earlier, at the end of chapter 1, he wrote “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” You cannot do that while harboring ill will (malice) towards others, being deceitful, acting hypocritically, speaking badly of others (slander) or being jealous of their possessions, success or achievements. All of these will disrupt and eventually destroy unity.

Jesus prayed for unity among believers, for a specific purpose: “That they [i.e. believers] may all be one, … so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Unity among believers is evangelistic! Unity is a witness to the world around us that God has transformed us within our minds (Romans 12:1-2).

Peter is writing a letter of fundamentals in Christian living. If this were a college course, it would be Christianity 101, freshman course, first semester. A fundamental principle for anything you want to achieve is to avoid sabotaging your own efforts. Peter has instructed us to “love one another earnestly”, and is now telling us how to avoid shooting ourselves in our own feet.